About

The Heart of Texas Foundation

We are an IRS approved 501(c)(3) charitable, non-profit organization. All donations are tax-deductible, please check with your financial advisor for details.

We were formed to respond to a clear call from the state of Texas and from the God of the Bible. We knew it was vital to respond positively. We went straight into the Texas prisons. There, we found the need to provide unexpected help to those who have no voice, no influence, and no ability to repay.

We offer an unusual prison response. While so many prison ministries focus on those who are getting out, we are perhaps the only ones you know who are focused on those who are never getting out, or who won’t be getting out for a long, long time. We focus mostly on the “lifers” and men with extremely long prison sentences because they will be around a long time after they graduate, and will be able to serve their fellow inmates with the spiritual and moral nutrition that comes when one encounters the gospel of Jesus Christ, which does indeed transform lives. When the lifers study the words and works of Jesus Christ and the new morality He teaches, the lifers usually undergo a complete transformation of their hearts. That leads to a transformation of their values, their character, their behavior, and their methods of leadership. And those things work to bring a new kind of prison reform. The prison becomes safer and more forgiving– and the inmates begin to reconcile with one another, with their families, and with their correctional officers. The graduates of the Seminary adopt a new worldview and new decision-making skills and exert positive leadership.

America’s Bloodiest Prison began its Seminary nearly 20 years ago. Today that prison, the Louisiana State Penitentiary, is perhaps the world’s safest prison. Their Seminary Bible College is given the major share of the credit, and a large part goes to Warden Burl Cain who continues to open the gates to un-traditional methods and a new approach to prison reform. Texas has followed suit, with the help of The Heart of Texas Foundation and its project partners: and with the active support and partnership with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention, Senator John Whitmire and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, and of course the staff at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, LA. The Darrington Seminary in Texas is our response to what we have seen occur at Angola, where the astoundingly high violence rate dropped more than 70% since the Angola Seminary was created.

The men and women in prison are without influence, without a voice, and have no ability to repay. They have created massive numbers of victims: we work hard to change the moral sickness that creates victims. Our work is changing Texas neighborhoods, impacting children in the inmates’ own families; impacting relatives in their own families and those of their victims; friends; and even reducing victims in the prisons themselves. And they need the miracle of God’s grace to interfere in their lives, through the caring responses of Christian men and women. Jesus Christ Himself urged the people to visit those in prison. Doing so often brings reconciliation with victims and with families. The Gospel of Jesus Christ does indeed transform lives. We see it for real, every day.